The original Friday the 13th is regarded by many people as the best in the series because it is so grounded in reality and that is what makes it so frightening. The iconic hockey mask isn't in this film nor is the killer behind it. Most people forget that the first film was made as an independent project and it wasn't supposed to spawn 12 sequels.
For those among you that haven't seen the original, it is about a cursed summer camp. A man named Steve Christy (played by Peter Brouwer) has decided that he wants to open up Camp Crystal Lake. Crystal Lake had been shut down 20 years earlier when two camp counselors were murdered after they were caught getting a little frisky instead of watching the kids. Ever since the closure, the townspeople nicknamed the place "Camp Blood."
Some people are just too stubborn to listen to good reason and Steve Christy sinks an awful lot of money into restoring Camp Crystal Lake. He hires some young camp counselors (including a very young Kevin Bacon) to help whip the place into shape, but teenagers apparently don't want to work. They want to constantly find reasons to take their clothes off. Their exhibitionist and immoral natures makes a killer murder them one by one in very grisly ways.
I guess knowing the secret ahead of time ruins any mystery that I might have had before watching Friday the 13th. I have seen all the sequels and spin-offs multiple times before and yet I still want to go back to the beginning because it is a much more believable story to tell around a campfire on a dark and stormy night.
A lot of you might wonder how a movie released in 1980 can look any different on Blu-ray. Well, since it was re-mastered and converted, it looks like a movie that was made today with people that bought some vintage clothes and went out into the woods to shoot a movie. The only problem with older movies is that it is always apparent when a movie was filmed; either by the filming techniques, special effects, or musical styles. But Friday the 13th looks so good that it almost made me forget that it was made 30 years ago. Honest.
The special features are pretty interesting too. There are a few documentaries about production and special effects used. There is also a cast reunion that took place in September 2008 that is worth watching just to hear Mama Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) talk about how much she hated the script and only made the movie because no one would watch it. Most of the bonus materials are in HD which is nice, but the only thing that I wished was included is a documentary showing the progression of the series over the years and how the original cast feels about it. I think that would be really interesting. Well, then again, I can always wait for the inevitable Blu-ray box set of the whole series and hope for it then.
In short: buy, buy, buy. There have been plenty of imitators over the years, but none can duplicate the original. Excluding little kids, Friday the 13th is a movie that everyone should watch if only just to see how well it stands the test of time.
